Unnatural

  * * * *

  “T-minus ten, nine, eight …”

  What if I burn up like a meteor reduced by the ruthless atmosphere?

  “… seven, six, five …”

  What if Jane emotionally manipulates me?

  “… four, three, two …”

  What if I regret worrying instead of praying for God to save my soul, no matter when or how it leaves my body?

  “… one, and we have liftoff! Godspeed, kiddo!”

  And what if the last thoughts I have before I die are about how much I hate Doctor Finch for playing telephone with my memo?

  The next few minutes were a storm of noise, shaking, incredible force, and, strong as her mental fears were, pure thrill. It was several times more dizzying than a roller-coaster, yet proportionally fun. At least compared to the default of her existence since becoming professionally rooted on that rock. Her last flight had been so long ago due to work obligations – about five years previous – that Sabrina was pleasantly surprised to re-experience the excitement of subduing gravity itself.

  In time she descended into the moment, too immersed in it to think about a thing. Sonicaps were so thoroughly automated as to leave her without a care.

  “Sonicap S7-B, can you hear me?” Russian accent.

  “Loud and clear, Governess. Might I ask why I’m talking to you rather than someone with a little more aeronautical know-how?”

  “Because none of those people have both responsibility for your safety, as this was my idea, and knowledge of the good news and the bad news I have for you. Which would you like first?”

  “Could you mix them into one neutral piece of news?”

  “If by that you mean, could I put them both into one sentence, I shall accept that challenge.” The brief lack of speech following was not true silence. The movement was muffled, yes, but still a far cry from the serene impression one could get from images of space.

  “Although we managed to catch up to the timetable, our attempts to gain information about Earth from androids in southern Nevada, where Uriah and Jane were when we first contacted them, are failing. There is a pattern emerging here. First there were complications with robots in Sloan, then this phenomenon shifted southwest to the aforementioned region. This gradual ‘robotic Dethroning,’ to put it in less-than-sensitive terms, is a growing circle. At this rate, the entire state should be swallowed in two hours.”

  “That’s certainly odd, but it could be just as much a bane for Jane as it is for us. That is to say, not a bloody lot, Governess, when our mission centers around Kazakhstan!”

  “Myopic, are you not? Sabrina, this growth rate is literally exponential. How and why this is, I cannot know any more than the next person, but this problem started no more than forty hours ago. We treated it like a pool of insignificant bacteria at the time, but with mitotic division and immortality, one bacterium can become quite the deadly foe in a short time.” Another pause. “And this is assuming Jane is not the cause herself, as you implicitly doubted.”

  “This is a robot you yourself said was far more emotionally strong than mentally. But …” It sank in. “I see the threat. Now what can we do about it?”

  “I wish I could say I was one step ahead of you, but when we tried to stymie the expansion, the robot ‘soldiers’ we had sent stopped transmitting info within minutes. Something or someone could be leading a robot front that could turn the entire android race, if we can call it that, against Luna.”

  How strong Sabrina’s resentment of her immobility in that capsule was, only Dilbert might know. “I am not a cursing woman, Governess, but damn! Does this mean there’s a real probability that I’ll find myself confronted by an army of androids when I hit Earth?”

  “Not quite.”

  “What happened to that blunt honesty? Did it go out the window at the same time you pretended there was no re-population plan?”

  “We have a defense mechanism for your sake, Miss Lockhart. Actually, more than one. First, Jane does not know at which port you will land. That makes a seventy-five percent chance in your favor already, plus a decent extra chance considering the Sonicap’s camouflaged design and its anti-electromagnetic shield. But that is not so impressive when your life is on the line, hence the plan. If our concern is that Jane will expect an early landing, we have an unmanned decoy ahead of you to misdirect her.”

  “That makes things a little better, but not ninety-nine percent.” Sabrina looked out the capsule window to see another Sonicap, which had a more noticeable yet not blatantly attention-drawing color. “Suppose this android can fell a spacecraft from miles away. What if the dummy isn’t enough to keep its attention away from me until I land?”

  “That brings me to what makes this a ‘ninety-nine percent’ plan. Even if our mystery robot whisperer is the threat, I see no reason to think he, she, or it can stop the decoy from doing its other duty. We installed in Sonicap S7-C a kind of super EM gun. On command – with a very short lag due to the distance, of course – this cannon will loose electromagnetic pulses in a very specific direction, or, if the case calls for it, across an expansive volume of space. The latter carries with it some obvious risks, which is why it will be a last resort.”

  It better be, because if the extra weight that thing’s added to the Sonicap ends up putting me in the line of fire when D-Day comes, you can kiss your Noah’s wife goodbye. “So does the other Sonicap have something like a microscope for finding the target before it can find us?”

  “Naturally.”

  “And you let me get so worried, why, now?”

  “Well, we cannot be certain the Sonicaps are immune to hijacking. It should be easy enough to finish the job before the offender even knows there is something to hijack, but time can only tell. You have the odds you want, but just because they are good enough to justify our sending you on this mission, it does not mean you do not have the right to have your doubts.”

  Sabrina took another moment of pseudo-silence to think. “Anything else I should know?”

  “I suppose it would please you to hear that, of the citizens of Luna who share your religious sentiments, all of them send their prayers for you. Not so much a loss anymore if it turns out Uriah is not a Christian, right?”

  “I always consider it a loss when the Good Shepherd loses a sheep, Governess. Until He finds it, anyway.”

  Even with Russia’s best communications devices, Zolnerowich’s laugh sounded fuzzy across miles of vacuous space. “You have a heart of gold there, Sabrina. Let us hope your lord finds me if you are right. Over and out.”

  Sabrina nodded in spite of herself. “Over and out.”